Benjamin K. Sovacool
South Royalton
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Articles by Benjamin K. Sovacool
Carbon removal projects need to get justice right
Public support for carbon removal grows when people get a say and a share in the benefits, across diverse sociopolitical contexts. No amount of carbon removed can substitute for fair process and fair outcomes. Fairness must be designed into carbon removal governance from the start. Recommendations for policy Getting the technology right is insufficient. Even high removal capacity cannot compensate for unfair decision-making or profit distribution. Build fairness into carbon removal governance.
Public support for novel carbon removal hinges on procedural and distributive fairness
Abstract Alongside the need for rapid emissions reductions, removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is emerging as a central pillar of global climate policy. Scaling up carbon removal raises pressing questions about how this can be done in an equitable and socially legitimate manner.
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Put health systems at the centre of European heatwave plans
CORRESPONDENCE 04 August 2026 Extreme heat is increasingly becoming a persistent silent killer in Europe. This year’s heatwaves have shown that heat lacks the visible devastation of floods or storms, yet it quietly worsens cardiovascular, renal and mental-health risks (see Nature 655, 288–290; 2026). It also increases pressure on health-care systems.
Biodiversity loss will decrease the future creditworthiness of nations
Abstract Biodiversity loss and deforestation are increasingly recognized as systemic economic risks. Yet, their implications for financial markets remain poorly understood. Here we study how biodiversity and ecosystem service loss affect financial risk for the world’s largest asset class, sovereign debt. Environmental degradation undermines the natural foundations of economic activity, reducing productive capacity and the ability of governments to service debt.
Plentitude of Pathways: Expert Views on the Benefits and Risks of Carbon Dioxide Removal in Six Countries Click to copy article link Article link copied!
1. Introduction Click to copy section linkSection link copied! A consensus may emerge that carbon dioxide removal (CDR) must play several important roles in climate mitigation pathways. As Rogelj et al. contend, (1) CDR is essential to achieve net-zero carbon dioxide emissions, net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, and ultimately, net-negative greenhouse gas emissions. Lamb et al.
A Not‐So‐Just Transition? Examining the Effects of Coal Sector Decline on Life Expectancy in U.S. Counties
1 Introduction Coal produces various forms of air, water, and soil pollution throughout its lifecycle. These exposures from coal are associated with a wide range of adverse population health outcomes, such as cardiovascular disease, asthma, lung cancer, preterm birth, mental illness, and mortality (Gohlke et al. 2011; Hendryx et al. 2020; Henneman et al. 2023; Shindell et al. 2018). The totality of these consequences has generated calls for a transition away from coal use.
Reviewing the 95 sociotechnical barriers to the decarbonization of buildings - Nature Communications
Overcome threats to renewable energy through skilful statecraft
CORRESPONDENCE 05 August 2025 Political polarization is threatening to derail the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, undermining climate goals and hampering the rights of Indigenous peoples to control energy on their own terms. Governments need a new framework to prevent the energy transition from backsliding — green-energy statecraft.
Compounding injustices can impede a just energy transition - Nature Energy
Coal and carbon-intensive regions have lagged behind in socioeconomic development, long before any transition-related structural changes were foreseeable. Acknowledging and tackling the compounding effects of old legacy and new transition injustices is vital for realizing a truly just energy transition.
Full article: Who cares about carbon dioxide removal? Assessing actors, policy positions, and participation modes within European and United Nations public consultation processes
ABSTRACT In addition to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, alternate strategies to mitigate climate change are entering the policy debate, such as Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), which aims to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. Despite being in the early stages of development, these interventions have already been indicated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as necessary contributors to the net zero transition.
Correction: Reconfiguring European industry for net-zero: a qualitative review of hydrogen and carbon capture utilization and storage benefits and implementation challenges
Correction: Reconfiguring European industry for net-zero: a qualitative review of hydrogen and carbon capture utilization and storage benefits and implementation challenges Correction for ‘Reconfiguring European industry for net-zero: a qualitative review of hydrogen and carbon capture utilization and storage benefits and implementation challenges’ by Benjamin K. Sovacool et al., Energy Environ. Sci., 2024, 17, 3523–3569, https://doi.org/10.1039/D3EE03270A.
A new hope or phantom menace? Exploring climate emotions and public support for climate interventions across 30 countries
1 INTRODUCTION Few things seem to divide human opinion as much as the emotion of hope and its role in human experience. Proposing that hope can be maladaptive, there is the familiar dictum, “it's the hope that kills you.” Alternately, there is Emily Dickinson: “Hope” is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul/And sings the tune without the words/And never stops – at all –.’’ In this telling, hope pushes us to persevere, despite doubt and uncertainty.
Full article: Mining as environmentalism: green/grey extractivism and the production of extractive subjectivities around the Rio Tinto Kennecott mine in the United States
ABSTRACT Concerted opposition from land defenders alongside climate change mitigation efforts by governments has made environmental and decarbonization efforts an essential element of mining operations. Located on the southwest outskirts of Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, Rio Tinto’s Kennecott mine not only produces so-called ‘energy transition materials,’ but also emerges as an industry exemplar in advancing environmental mediation, modernization, and decarbonization strategies.
Demographics shape public preferences for carbon dioxide removal and solar geoengineering interventions across 30 countries - Communications Earth & Environment
Abstract Climate intervention technologies such as carbon dioxide removal and solar geoengineering are becoming more actively considered as solutions to global warming. The demographic aspects of the public serve as a core determinant of social vulnerability and the ability for people to cope with, or fail to cope with, exposure to heat waves, air pollution, or disruptions in access to modern energy services.
The promise and peril of sociotechnical visions of the future - Nature Reviews Physics
Sociotechnical visions of the future can motivate researchers to create a better world, but as social scientist Benjamin K. Sovacool argues, they can also blind the scientific community to potential downsides.
Implementing climate justice in Boston’s Building Performance Standard - Nature Cities
Boston’s Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO) provides an early example of how contestations around climate justice are already shaping cities’ implementation of climate action on the ground.
Critically examining research funding patterns for climate change and human health - npj Climate Action
Abstract Many actors have recently launched significant new initiatives in the domain of climate change and health. Given this important nexus, we undertook a review of funding patterns from 1985 – 2022, using the NIH RePORTER database for the United States and the Dimensions database globally. This includes an assessment of more than 9 million publicly funded projects across both databases with a collective budget of more than $3 trillion.
Exploring patterns of distributional justice in global climate change mitigation scenarios
Abstract Collective climate action hinges on the distribution of benefits and burdens of climate change mitigation. Yet assumptions relevant to distributional justice are frequently made only implicitly in climate change mitigation scenarios. Here, we introduce the patterns of the distributional justice framework that operationalize philosophical justice theories as quantitative requirements for scenario trajectories.
Reconfiguring European industry for net-zero: a qualitative review of hydrogen and carbon capture utilization and storage benefits and implementation challenges
Reconfiguring European industry for net-zero: a qualitative review of hydrogen and carbon capture utilization and storage benefits and implementation challenges† Based on a rich corpus of original mixed-methods research, this paper explores the benefits, barriers, and justice impacts of industrial decarbonization via hydrogen and carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) via European industrial firms located in UK clusters.
Public Perceptions and Support of Climate Intervention Technologies across the Global North and Global South
We currently bear witness to the increasing devastations of climate change, a sobering testament to the insufficient progress humanity has made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The horizon of potential solutions is widening, including the consideration of novel, potentially radical climate-intervention technologies.
The path to net-zero emissions runs through industry Original
As government leaders and climate negotiators gather in Dubai for the COP28 United Nations climate conference, an enormous challenge looms over the proceedings: decarbonizing the global industrial sector. Industry has accounted for over 30% of total greenhouse gas emissions in recent years. It is the single largest emitting sector when accounting for its electricity use and heat generation.
The path to net-zero emissions runs through industry
Steel factories, like this one in China, are major sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images As government leaders and climate negotiators gather in Dubai for the COP28 United Nations climate conference, an enormous challenge looms over the proceedings: decarbonizing the global industrial sector. Industry has accounted for over 30% of total greenhouse gas emissions in recent years.
The path to net-zero emissions runs through industry
Previous OK Current Conditions OK Current Conditions as of 05:00 PM CST Wednesday, November 29, 2023 Next Up AP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EST Israeli military says 10 Israelis, four Thai nationals, have been released by Ha… Licenced as Creative Commons - attribution, no derivatives. More Obituaries
The path to net-zero emissions runs through industry Original
As government leaders and climate negotiators gather in Dubai for the COP28 United Nations climate conference, an enormous challenge looms over the proceedings: decarbonizing the global industrial sector. Industry has accounted for over 30% of total greenhouse gas emissions in recent years. It is the single largest emitting sector when accounting for its electricity use and heat generation.
The path to net-zero emissions runs through industry
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Coral reefs, cloud forests and radical climate interventions in Australia’s Wet Tropics and Great Barrier Reef
Citation: Sovacool BK, Baum CM, Low S, Fritz L (2023) Coral reefs, cloud forests and radical climate interventions in Australia’s Wet Tropics and Great Barrier Reef. PLOS Clim 2(10): e0000221. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000221 Editor: Laurence L. Delina, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, HONG KONG Received: February 6, 2023; Accepted: June 19, 2023; Published: October 4, 2023 Copyright: © 2023 Sovacool et al.
Harnessing human and machine intelligence for planetary-level climate action - npj Climate Action
Abstract The ongoing global race for bigger and better artificial intelligence (AI) systems is expected to have a profound societal and environmental impact by altering job markets, disrupting business models, and enabling new governance and societal welfare structures that can affect global consensus for climate action pathways.
Social innovation supports inclusive and accelerated energy transitions with appropriate governance - Communications Earth & Environment
Abstract Accelerating energy transitions that are both sustainable and just remains an important challenge, and social innovation can have a key role in this transition. Here, we examine the diversity and potential of social innovation in energy systems transformation, synthesizing original mixed methods data from expert interviews, document analysis, social innovation experiments, a representative survey, and an expert survey.
Uneasy tensions in energy justice and systems transformation - Nature Energy
Differences in the approach to community acceptance of energy technologies can muddy visions of energy futures. Acknowledgement of the tensions around justice perspectives and the degree of desired change can improve scholarship and policy dialogue. A widespread transition to less carbon-intensive sources of energy depends heavily on the acceptance of communities that use or host energy infrastructure (for example, on- and offshore wind turbines, solar panels, and transmission lines).
Conspiracy spillovers and geoengineering
3 NASEM Reflecting sunlight. in: Recommendations for Solar Geoengineering Research and Research Governance.
Policy prescriptions to address energy and transport poverty in the United Kingdom - Nature Energy
Abstract Tens of millions of households across Europe struggle to afford adequate electricity and heating services and reliable transportation, while recent high fuel prices could lead to an increase in excess winter deaths. Tackling energy and transport poverty is thus of paramount policy importance. Here we document the drivers and lived experiences of energy and transport poverty in the United Kingdom, based on public focus groups and expert interviews.
Industrial clusters for deep decarbonization
Information Published In Science Volume 378 | Issue 6620 11 November 2022 Copyright Copyright © 2022 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Submission history Published in print: 11 November 2022 Permissions Request permissions for this article.
Decarbonize pedagogy - apply sustainable development goals
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The hidden costs of batteries
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Positive Externalities of Decarbonization: Quantifying the Full Potential of Avoided Deaths and Displaced Carbon Emissions from Renewable Energy and Nuclear Power
Earlier research in this journal suggests that nuclear power systems have prevented 1.84 million air pollution-related deaths from 1971 to 2009 and could save an additional 7 million deaths by 2050. Building on that work, we adopt a broader lens that looks at renewable energy and nuclear power as well as a greater range of energy pathways.
Sociotechnical typologies for national energy transitions
The energy landscape is changing dramatically. It is populated by many different and discrete energy transitions happening simultaneously in across different sectors, with dynamically different drivers, and across varying locations. This Perspective proposes a new three-part categorization to help better understand the myriad socio-technical changes being witnessed, which cut across user and market behaviour as well as institutions and technologies.
The future of coal in a carbon-constrained climate
Phasing out coal requires expanding the notion of a ‘just transition’ and a roadmap that specifies the sequence of coal plant retirement, the appropriate policy instruments as well as ways to include key stakeholders in the process. Despite decades of knowledge about its contribution to climate change, coal combustion still accounts for 40% of global CO2 emissions from energy use.
Sociotechnical transitions for deep decarbonization
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Sustainable minerals and metals for a low-carbon future
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Sustainable minerals and metals for a low-carbon future
Benjamin K. Sovacool, Saleem H. Ali, Morgan Bazilian, Ben Radley, Benoit Nemery, Julia Okatz, and Dustin Mulvaney Abstract Supplementary Material References and Notes Abstract Climate change mitigation will create new natural resource and supply chain opportunities and dilemmas, because substantial amounts of raw materials will be required to build new low-carbon energy devices and infrastructure (1).
Sustainable minerals and metals for a low-carbon future
Policy ForumENERGY Benjamin K. Sovacool1, Saleem H. Ali2,3,4, Morgan Bazilian5, Ben Radley6, Benoit Nemery7, Julia Okatz8, Dustin Mulvaney9 1University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. 2University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA. 3University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. 4United Nations International Resource Panel, United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi, Kenya. 5Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, USA. 6London School of Economics, London, UK.
Connecting climate action with other Sustainable Development Goals - Nature Sustainability
Abstract The international community has committed to combat climate change and achieve 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Here we explore (dis)connections in evidence and governance between these commitments. Our structured evidence review suggests that climate change can undermine 16 SDGs, while combatting climate change can reinforce all 17 SDGs but undermine efforts to achieve 12. Understanding these relationships requires wider and deeper interdisciplinary collaboration.
Internationalizing the political economy of hydroelectricity: security, development and sustainability in hydropower states
1. Introduction Immediate and drastic greenhouse gas emission reductions are needed to address climate change. As the International Renewable Energy Agency and International Energy Agency (2017 International Renewable Energy Agency and International Energy Agency (2017). Perspectives for the energy transition: Investment needs for a low-carbon energy system.
How can we cut fossil fuel subsidies, without hurting poorer people who rely on cheap energy?
Almost all governments in the world joined the Paris agreement in 2015 in an effort to tackle climate change. In the same year, many of the same governments paid about $400bn in direct and indirect subsidies to help people buy fossil fuels. Subsidies are government policies which make energy cheaper than under normal market conditions. They mostly go towards fossil fuels, since most of the energy we use comes from oil, gas or coal.
Dismissive and deceptive car dealerships create barriers to electric vehicle adoption at the point of sale - Nature Energy
Abstract As most consumers do not have pre-existing knowledge of electric vehicles (EVs), and current market conditions favour petrol and diesel vehicles, car dealership experiences may strongly influence EV purchasing decisions. Here, we show that car dealerships pose a significant barrier at the point of sale due to a perceived lack of business case viability in relation to petrol and diesel vehicles.
Fossil Fuel Subsidies Need to Go – But What about the Poorer People who Rely on Cheap Energy? - Resilience
Almost all governments in the world joined the Paris agreement in 2015 in an effort to tackle climate change. In the same year, many of the same governments paid about US$400 billion in direct and indirect subsidies to help people buy fossil fuels. Subsidies are government policies which make energy cheaper than under normal market conditions. They mostly go towards fossil fuels, since most of the energy we use comes from oil, gas or coal.
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